CHEYENNE, Wyoming — Liz Cheney’s vocal criticism of former President Donald Trump and her vote to impeach him cost her not only her leadership position as the No. 3 Republican in the House but has prompted a rush to challenge her in a primary in hopes of unseating the third-term congresswoman.
But the 2022 primary election is more than a year away, and even voters frustrated with the congresswoman indicate that they could support her again depending on how the rest of the race plays out.
To be sure, voters in Cheyenne, the state’s capital city, openly expressed their negative feelings about Cheney after her vote to impeach Trump and her continuing and increasingly strong criticism of him.
“Nobody likes her,” said Doug Kanda, who works in the pipeline business.
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“She’s making this whole thing with Trump so personal,” said Mandy Peterson, a dental hygienist. “They’re trying to impeach him because they don’t want him to run again. So that kind of bothers me because I think what he did for the country, in part of the country, it’s definitely beneficial with jobs.”
Cheney is “too emotional about things right now,” Peterson added. “I need someone that’s got a clear head.”
A quieter segment of the voting public, many of whom declined to be named, stand by the congresswoman.
“I support Liz Cheney, and I supported her position on Donald Trump. And I personally think that the silent majority in the state of Wyoming probably did support her, even though we’re a very conservative state,” Brad Graham, a retired man, said.
Public polls testing the temperature of Wyoming find that Cheney is in trouble, though.
An April poll of 400 likely Republican primary voters in Wyoming, sponsored by the Club for Growth PAC, a group working to oust Cheney from her seat, found that 52% would vote in the primary to replace Cheney regardless of who runs against her. Another 31% said that they would consider another candidate, while 14% said that they would support Cheney in her reelection efforts.
That matches with a January poll commissioned by Trump’s Save America PAC, which found that 13% of voters in the state would vote to reelect Cheney regardless of who runs against her.
Those numbers are encouraging to the at least seven candidates who have said they will challenge Cheney in a primary.
Cheney has plenty of time to work to try and win back those who may be disappointed by her vote to impeach Trump and her constant criticism of his election fraud claims but who are not necessarily set on voting to replace her.
“I didn’t particularly agree with what she did, but she had every right to do so,” said a man named Tom, who declined to give his last name and said that he doesn’t know whether or not he will vote for Cheney in next year’s primary. Others agreed that it depends on how she runs her race next year and which candidates emerge as alternatives.
During a tour of the state during a recent August recess, Cheney had a few public appearances. According to her supporters, angry voters who disagreed with her position left events at least understanding where she was coming from.
And the congresswoman has found a few unlikely allies.
“I don’t really agree with her across the board on many issues, but I’m profoundly proud of her for speaking her mind,” said Kelly Wright, who is active in the Laramie County Democratic Party. She has heard of at least one other Democrat who plans to register Republican in order to vote in the primary for Cheney and would consider doing so herself depending on who Cheney’s top opponents were.
Those seeking to challenge Cheney face the challenge of getting name recognition in the state. None of the more than a dozen voters that the Washington Examiner spoke to could name a single candidate running against Cheney. Candidates include state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, state Rep. Chuck Gray, and businessman Darin Smith.
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For those against Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, their distaste for her was less rooted in her impeachment vote or challenging Trump and more about her status as a legacy establishment figure. Peterson, the dental hygienist, said that even though she thinks the election was a “mess,” the focus should be on other things.
Several voters noted that she only moved back to Wyoming in 2013 and then launched a failed 2014 Senate bid before winning her at-large House seat in 2016.
“I just never liked her politics at all. She’s an outsider,” said David Edgar, 45. “She needs out.”
